“Lessons are not being learned in Bangladesh - again the use
sub-standard material, structural deficiencies and neglecting health and
safety standards took away 8 precious lives and left 46 injured” said
Shahidul Alam, BSBWWF General Secretary while expressing his outrage and
disappointment. The BWI along with its affiliates BBWWF and BSBWWF
undertook an urgent mission from 18-20 March 2015 and visited the
accident site, met the victims’ families, injured workers, local leaders
and officials. The incident occurred at the Mongla Cement Factory in
Bagehat District, 300 kilometers from Dhaka on 12 March 2015.

The mission visited the Bagmara area of the Khulna division to meet the
family members of the deceased workers and also visited injured workers
at the Khulna Medical Hospital. The visit and interactions revealed a
tale of negligence and utter disrespect to the health and safety
standards and consequent loss of lives and injuries. Khadiza Akhtar,
wife of deceased Bakir Billah stated: “We have lost our sole bread
earner in this accident and now what we remain with is a paltry
compensation of Taka 100,000. Is this how you value the life of a
worker?”

As per the Bangladeshi Labour Law, the stipulated compensation for death
during work is Taka 100,000 (US$ 1250) and additionally Taka 20,000
(US$ 250) has been given by the local administration. However, the
families of the deceased and injured workers were unanimous in venting
their anger on the low compensation that did not do justice to the
families who have either lost their bread winners or find them injured.

One of the injured workers at the Khulna Medical College, Mansoor
mentioned “I had reached the work site early in the morning and the work
commenced as per schedule. The roof gave in all of a sudden, the workers
did not have any personal protective equipment – I am now lying in the
hospital in severe pain and have injuries on chest, hand and leg and
also two teeth are broken. At my age, it will take months for me to
recover from this injury”.

Along with other partners a campaign is launched for enhancing
compensation and additionally explore legal action while continuing to
work on revision in Bangladesh Labour Law and also ratification of ILO
Conventions 155 and Convention 167.